Marner helps Maple Leafs strike first
TORONTO 4 BOSTON 1 (Leafs lead series 1-0)
BOSTON — Hours after joking about his continued inability to grow a playoff beard, Mitch Marner stepped up like a hardened post-season performer.
At this point, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The slick winger scored twice, including on a short-handed penalty shot to give his team a lead it would never surrender, as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Thursday to grab a 1-0 advantage in their best-of-seven first-round series.
Marner paced the Leafs with nine points in their seven-game exit at the hands of the Bruins at this stage 12 months ago, and once again demonstrated an uncanny ability to step up in big moments.
“We’re a fast team,” said Marner, who pointed to Toronto’s confidence as a difference this time around against Boston. “When we play right, it’s hard to stop us.”
The 21-year-old got the Leafs back to even after the Bruins pulled ahead in the first period before connecting on his penalty shot with a ridiculous move on Tuukka Rask.
“He’s one of our special players,” said Toronto defenceman Jake Muzzin, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Los Angeles Kings. “He reads the play so well. He’s almost one step ahead, to be honest.”
“[Marner’s] an elite player in the league at a young age,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy added. “He’s always played well against us, always played hard against us.”
Marner, who said prior to the game the peach fuzz growing on his face “gets heavier now,” not only led the offensive charge, but along with John Tavares and Zach Hyman, kept Boston’s big line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak — which combined for 30 points against Toronto last spring — in check at 5-on-5.
“We just wanted to stay above them,” Marner said. “We wanted to make it hard on them getting to our blue line and getting it in. Muzzy and [defence partner Nikita] Zaitsev did a great job as well.”
William Nylander and Tavares, into an empty net, had the other goals for Toronto, which got 37 saves from a calm and collected Frederik Andersen. Tavares assisted on Marner’s first goal.
Bergeron replied for Boston, while Rask stopped 29 shots as the Leafs won a Game 1 for the first time since April 9, 2003, against the Philadelphia Flyers.
“A big road win for us,” Toronto centre Auston Matthews said. “We really kept our composure.”
Game 2 goes Saturday at TD Garden ahead of the series shifting to Scotiabank Arena on Monday and Wednesday.
“Still six games left here to get the job done,” Marchand said. “We have to be better.”
Tied 1-1 after 20 minutes and with his team down a man, Marner moved to his forehand on the penalty shot for his second goal of the night at 2:47 of the second after getting brought down on a breakaway by Jake DeBrusk.
“I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do,” said Marner, who scored Toronto’s first penalty shot in the playoffs since Mats Sundin in 1999. “Last second I switched it up just seeing where he was and seeing his position.”
Capitals 4, Hurricanes 2
WASHINGTON — Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin combined to score three goals on the first eight shots, and the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals survived a surge from Andrei Svechnikov and the Carolina Hurricanes to win Game 1 of their first-round series 4-2 on Thursday.
Backstrom scored twice and Ovechkin scored on the power play to fire up a raucous sellout crowd in the first playoff game in Washington since celebrating the franchise’s first title in June. It looked like the Capitals would roll toward a statement victory against an opponent lacking playoff experience, but the pesky Hurricanes turned up the heat.
Mrazek bounced back from a rough start to make four huge saves early in the third period, while Svechnikov scored twice in his playoff debut to put some fear into the Capitals, who were outshot 29-18 and outplayed for long stretches. Braden Holtby made 27 saves and the penalty kill came up big on two late Carolina power plays to allow Washington to take a 1-0 series lead.